This invention relates generally to modular electrical connectors useful, for example, in telephone interconnection systems or the like. More particularly, the invention is directed to new and improved modular connector designs facilitating prompt field service connection and reconnection of electrical circuits in selected circuit patterns with a minimum of effort and time by relatively unskilled personnel.
In telephone interconnection systems and similar environments, individual telephones are required to have one or more specific features according to customer requirements, such as preselected telephone number, multiple-lines, a hold button, etc. The individual telephones must be joined to the system so as to accommodate these requirements. Often, however, these customer requirements change after a period of time necessitating a service call to reconnect the individual telephones into the system according to the new requirements. Heretofore, it has been commonplace to hand-wire and solder leads to the electrical connectors, and thus both installation and later reinstallations have required a tedious unsoldering and resoldering of wires to connector leads according to the modified requirements.
Modularization of telephone interconnection systems has become increasingly popular in order to reduce hardware requirements and the service expense inherent in performing individual conductor terminations. For these reasons, modularized or standardized telephone jack connectors are presently being incorporated into individual telephone units, and standardized telephone plugs have been adopted for terminating both ends of the telephone cord. The interconnection between the conductors and the telephone unit is then effected by the simple mating of a modular plug and jack. In addition, a variety of junction boxes, bridging adapters and other devices have been developed which incorporate modular jack connectors for receiving such plugs, the modular jack connector being prewired in accordance with the above to one or more standardized connectors disposed in the device. Such standard telephone plugs and jacks are known in the art and are described in the Federal Communications Commission Regulations published in the Federal Register, Monday, July 12, 1976.
In lieu of utilizing the above described pre-wired junction boxes and the like, a standardized connector already widely in use, such as the connector sold by Bunker Ramo Corporation under the trademarks "57" and "157" Series, may be individually adapted to the above modular concept and utilized in accordance with the previously described telephone interconnection technique. One form of such an adaptation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,548, issued Jan. 24, 1978, to Alan Henry Kasper and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. As disclosed in the aforementioned patent, plural conductors electrically interconnect the electrical contacts of the modular connector with one preselected set of contacts in the standardized connector which supports the modular connector, thereby electrically connecting the telephone unit with the desired signal outputs of the telephone switching equipment system. These conductors are generally soldered or otherwise permanently attached to both the modular connector and to the preselected set of contacts in the standardized connector.
It has been found desirable in some instances to eliminate the soldering or other permanent attachment of the conductors to the preselected set of contacts of the standardized connector as well as to provide a full complement of electrical contacts therein which are selectively and releasably engageable with the conductors. Such a capability would reduce the requirement of maintaining a large inventory of pre-wired connectors having different wiring arrangements. It would also eliminate the alternative procedure of detaching the permanently terminated conductors and resoldering them to a different set of contacts on the standardized connector in order to provide electrical interconnection between the single telephone unit and different signal outputs of the telephone signalling and switching system coupled to the standardized connector.